MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – It should come as no surprise that the financial website CreditDonkey.com ranks Minneapolis number five on a list of the 10 best places to start over.

Mary Tyler Moore had a hit TV show doing just that — playing a single woman who moved to the City of Lakes after being dumped by a boyfriend.

She applied for a job as a newsroom secretary and was soon producing the 6 o’clock News on WJM-TV.

“Certainly, we have emerged from the recession faster than other places around the country,” said Minnesota State Demographer Susan Brower.

She says criteria cited in the CreditDonkey survey are pretty accurate. We currently have a lower unemployment rate than the national average, a rising population and a higher than average percentage of unmarried adults. These are all characteristics of a place that people who are starting over are likely to seek.

“It’s a great place to live,” Brower said. “The numbers say it, and I say it personally.”

Sitting in her coffee shop, Julie Peck is a prime example of someone who was determined to start over. Two years ago she decided she’d had enough of working for someone else and took a leap of faith to strike out on her own.

“Basically, I was done with the corporate world and nonprofit world, and I wanted to do something on my own, and I did it,” Peck said.

Her gamble paid off. The single mother of three boys seized the opportunity to open a coffee cafe in the Griggs Midway building that she calls Lucy, after the family dog.

Peck admits that she’s never looked back and says the business is doing well.

As for her advice to others who seek a new beginning, Peck says, “do your business plan, research the area and make sure there’s a need.”

And in the words of Mary Richards: “You might just make it after all.”